Parliament should cool it

Upset over last week's Conservative economic plan, its lack of immediate fiscal stimulus, and its cuts to political party subsidies, the opposition is threatening to take down the government, and possibly form a coalition. Am I the only one who threw up in their mouth a bit when I heard last week that we were potentially staring down a choice between another election and a constitutional crisis?

Not since 1928 has a coalition of opposition parties formed a government, and it wouldn't be a drama-free affair. First of all, the Governor General would have to decide if a not-so-friendly gang of Liberal, New Democrat, and Bloc MPs could run the country, with one of their leaders as Prime Minister. Making the Paul Martin-appointed Michaëlle Jean politically relevant could cause a firestorm of time-wasting constitutional debates.

A coalition already sounds like a highly unproductive potential government, and the idea of the new prime minister being lame duck Stephane Dion, less-than-20 per cent-support Jack Layton, or the result of a fast-tracked Liberal leadership race doesn't inspire confidence.

We are in a time of impending economic crisis, and what the country needs is stability in leadership that can inspire confidence, and keep us clear from national bankruptcy.

Canadians were aware about the economic future of the country during the federal election in October, and more picked the Tories to handle the situation than any other party. Equally, it is not likely those Canadians were harbouring any delusions that Harper's government would handle the situation with drastic spending increases.

Harper's Tories are doing what a Conservative government should be expected to do. They are expecting the recession to decrease the government's tax revenues, and reacting by cutting government spending to avoid a deficit. This is basic fiscal prudence.

They are additionally taking a careful and calm approach to considerations of added stimulus spending to dull the recession's bite. Although many governments around the world in more desperate situations have opted for stimulus packages, some economists doubt its effectiveness.

If they do eventually opt for stimulus and dump cash into the hands of taxpayers and industries looking for bailouts, it will be good to know the government isn't already fighting massive deficits like the United States. We wouldn't want our grandchildren paying for those bailouts.

This is the strategy enough Canadians voted for to bring the Tories a few seats from a majority last month, with one glaring exception. Those Canadians certainly didn't vote for the arrogance of using cuts to political party subsidies as the flagship spending cut of last Thursday's plan.

Among $2-4 billion in annual spending cuts over the next five years, the Tories chose to highlight a $30 million per-vote subsidy cut as the prime example in the opening text of their plan, before retracting the idea over the weekend amidst all the clamor. A proposal that so obviously harms the opposition and lower-tier parties far more than the flush-with-cash Conservative Party makes them look hyper-partisan and opportunistic. In this sense, they have some culpability in inciting the opposition's uproar.

Still, non-essential spending cuts are prudent, and cutting political party subsidies is better than cutting education or infrastructure, and can always be reversed in better economic times. Arguments stating that this is a threat to democracy are nonsense, as politicians and parties are still able to raise funds through supporters. Immediately after the plan's announcement, Michael Ignatieff's leadership campaign solicited donations from supporters using the proposed subsidy cuts as motivation.

I will not argue for or against a stimulus package, as I am not an economist. But if the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois feel so strongly that it is necessary, then they should act like they did before the last election. They should use their voices and their votes to state their demands to a minority government. If you look how easily the Tories dropped the political subsidies idea, you'll see that the system works fine, and that there's no need waste time playing games and fighting over power.

The last thing an election-fatigued and recession-facing country needs is this undue political drama. So for now, Parliament, cool it, please.